Sun and Senator Grassley

Per FCW article http://www.fcw.com/print/11_33/news/90256-1.html, it was determined during Sun's option to extend their GSA schedule for five-years that Sun had offered better discounts to some customers their GSA pricing. 

First, this is clearly acceptable behavior and occurs everyday with any large corporation like Sun.  Under the price monitoring clause of Sun's negotiated class(es) of customers in their Final Proposal Revision (Basis of Award), Sun is required to pass along any favorable pricing/concessions if the item is on their schedule and is sold during the same time as any GSA order.  While Sun can and likely indicated in the CSP's for their renewal that they have deviated from their stated business practices, all they needed to provide is  (1) a discussion of the situations that lead to deviations from standard practice, (2) an explanation of how often they occur, and (3) the controls you employ to assure the integrity of your pricing.

 

Sun refused to provide additional historical pricing/concessions to GSA and they became a deadlock.  I know two GSA CO's who refused to sign the Sun GSA extension and the third did so quickly that it was highly suspect.  Amazingly, the signing CO said she was under no pressure to sign the award but she no less was given a bonus for such (boy, that stinks) and she quickly transferred to another government office out of state.  The two non-signing CO's moved into other GSA schedule centers.

 

If GSA wasn't so concerned about losing a big chuck of their Industrial Funding Fee from Sun's GSA sales or if Sun wasn't a big fish, no GSA CO would have tolerated Sun's behavior.  Soon after Sun's GSA extension, they terminated their schedule for convenience but there's talk that their business practices may be investigated, which is allowable for up to three years after a GSA schedule expires/cancelled/terminated.